Chapter 36
CHAPTER
At first, there was nothing.
No sound, no breath, only the faint echo of a heartbeat that wasn’t mine.
Then it came again, faint but steady.
Thud. Thud.
Each pulse dragged me upward, through layers of silence and smoke, until I felt air scrape into my lungs. My chest convulsed as the world rushed back in pieces—light, pain, the taste of ash.
Thud. Thud.
I opened my eyes.
The ceiling was gone. Only the night sky stared back, fractured by what remained of the castle’s bones. Wind screamed through the open arches, carrying the stench of scorched stone and iron.
Every breath hurt, every muscle sore.
Thud. Thud.
My eyes landed on them.
Lionel, Nate and Ashley stood across the chamber, bloodied but unbroken, throwing everything they had at the Demon King. They fired their guns and threw explosives, smoke building to slowly obscure them.
And with me, motionless, was Malakai.
He was sitting up with me on his lap, head resting against my shoulder as if he had simply… taken a nap in the midst of the chaos. One arm was still wrapped around my waist, the other limp at his side. The faint glow that had once burned beneath his skin was gone.
My breath hitched.
“Malakai?” I could barely utter his name, my voice hoarse. I tried to move, but my limbs felt like they had turned to stone. “Malakai, please…”
No response, only the wind and the foreign beat of an unknown heart.
Thud. Thud.
My hand trembled, reaching for his face. It was wet, thin streaks on his cheeks.
He had been crying. Had he thought I died? “Malakai, wake up.” I wanted him to look at me, to see that I was fine, to heal his broken heart.
Thud. Thud.
Something fractured inside me. All the warmth he’d poured into me, the loud heartbeat that I couldn’t ignore, turned jagged, burning through my veins.
No.
His heart wasn’t broken.
The world blurred behind a wash of tears, and somewhere beyond them, the Demon King laughed.
He was covered in blood and wounds, and still he laughed in the face of danger. But he looked different. The King, who once appeared indestructible, almighty and far too powerful for us to face… was desperate, weakened and clinging on to every last victory he could claim.
He had turned his gaze towards Malakai and me again.
“So, this was the fate he chose?” the Demon King twitched his nose in disgust. “Such a weakling, sacrificing himself for a human… What was it you called him? Mal—”
“Utter his name,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “And I’ll burn you from this world.”
My fire answered before thought could. It rose from the floor in waves, drawn from the hollow ache in my chest, from every ounce of grief and love I couldn’t bear. The air ignited around me, white-gold and furious.
“Ethalyn?” Ashley was the first to gasp out.
“She—she’s alive!?” a broken voice I recognized as Lionel’s continued.
The King paused mid-step, amusement fading from his face.
As I thought, Malakai and the rest of my friends had made him bleed enough to taste fear once more.
I felt the fire coil tighter, brighter, no longer the gentle warmth Malakai had known, but something sharp, absolute. My heart pounded, each beat feeding the flame until it became its own being, breathing with me.
“You hurt my friends. You hurt him,” I said, and my voice broke on the edges of a sob. “I’ll take everything from you.”
The words tore the air apart.
Flame erupted, not the clean flames I had once commanded, but something deeper, streaked with crimson veins that pulsed like arteries.
Malakai’s power bled through mine, threads of blood twisting inside the inferno until it roared like a storm given flesh. The air itself made way for my frenzy.
I was stronger than ever, but my heart was breaking seeing the swirls of blood obeying my command.
The Demon King raised a hand, red shadows forming into a vast shield that swallowed the light.
“Come on, don’t let her fight on her own!” Eve hissed in pain as she lifted her rifle despite her wounds, taking aim at the Demon King.
“We’re right here with you!” Lionel shouted, his voice still trembling.
The Demon King snapped his teeth together angrily and sent a shadow tendril my way. The ground erupted, stone forming like a wall, stopping the attack before it slowly lowered itself again.
Jaden had saved me. “We’ve got you!”
My first wave of power struck the Demon King and shattered his shield, sparks raining across the marble. He smiled, cruel and patient. “You think his remnants will save you?”
I didn’t answer. I wasn’t thinking anymore.
The fire inside me surged again, spiraling higher, fed by the echo of Malakai’s heartbeat still drumming faintly inside my chest. I stilled, dragging air into my lungs until it burned.
Lionel shouted something, my name, maybe, before he pulled out two guns and let loose against the Demon King, a sizzling sound burning against his flesh.
Quartz.
Ashley joined him, throwing bombs at the Demon King’s feet and once they went off, pink shrapnel shot in all directions, tiny pieces of the precious gem embedding within him.
Together, they drove the King back a step, enough for me to move.
I reached for the flame and felt the pulse of blood that wasn’t mine respond, coiling up my arms.
“He gave this to me,” I said, voice shaking. “So you’ll face both of us.”
The next blast tore free, a torrent of fire threaded with scarlet blood. It crashed into the King’s new shield and didn’t stop. The blood-fire crawled across it, eating through like acid. He staggered, eyes narrowing, the calm cracking at last.
He struck back, darkness slamming into me, a crushing weight of shadow and will. Pain flared through every nerve, and for a heartbeat, my fire dimmed.
I felt Malakai again, the warmth of him curled against me, steady like an embrace, the blood threads flaring brighter, defiant.
“Now!” Ashley roared, lobbing another bomb filled with quartz. Nate and Lionel followed, reloading their guns with more quartz and pushing against the King’s flank.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit!” Eve hissed as she tried to reload her rifle with one hand, fumbling with the magazine.
The Demon King snarled, turning towards them, and that’s when I gathered everything that was left, grief, fury, love…
I screamed.
Magic answered.
It burst outward, flooding the hall in a tide of light and blood that devoured the shadows. The Demon King threw up both hands, his power roaring in protest. The shield he desperately tried to keep in place crumbled again with a sound like shattering glass. The flames hit him with full force.
He staggered backward, clothes burning, skin cracking under the intense power. The red veins in my fire tightened, pulsing faster, matching the wild rhythm in my chest. I could feel Malakai in every heartbeat, guiding and fighting with me.
The King fell to one knee.
“Stay down,” I whispered, tears cutting through the blood on my face. “This ends with you.”
He tried one last time to rise, power gathering in a desperate surge. But I didn’t let him. The final wave of fire tore through him, light, blood, and love fused into one unbearable brilliant force.
For a long moment, the world held its breath.
The light faded, leaving only ash, wind, and silence.
I stood trembling in the wreckage, smoke curling around me, the last embers fading from my hands. The King was dead.
And at my feet, Malakai was still. The glow in his skin had not returned, but his face was peaceful, almost serene. I dropped to my knees beside him, the world blurring again.
“Hey,” I whispered, brushing blood from his cheek. “It’s done. You can come back now.”
No answer.
My own heartbeat stuttered, unsure if it should keep going.
For a long, fragile moment, I waited for him to stir, to make some terrible joke about my aim, to open his eyes and tell me it was over.
But there was nothing, only the stillness of someone who had given everything.
I pressed trembling fingers to his throat, then to his chest.
Cold. Silent.
“No,” I whispered. The word didn’t sound like mine. “No, no, no—”
The words he had spoken, I thought it had been poetic, out of love… I thought he meant it metaphorically, some vow born from our feelings. But as I knelt there, feeling my own heartbeat steady where his should have been, the truth cut through like glass.
He hadn’t borrowed my fire. He had replaced my life with his.
The realization shook me—rage, grief, disbelief colliding until I couldn’t breathe. I clawed at his shirt, sobbing, shaking him as if I could wake him through sheer stubbornness.
“What have you done?” I barked through my sobs. “Damn you, Malakai. Why? I never asked for this, I never asked you to do this!”
But he had.
He had fought harder than any of us.
And I, his bargain, his tether, had been the weapon he chose to wield last.
“This will unravel us,” I whispered.
A cry escaped me, raw and broken. I folded over him, the warmth of my tears vanishing as soon as they touched his cooling skin. Every thread of my magic ached for him, called for him, but there was nothing left to reach.
“Take it back!” I screamed, pulling at his shirt. “Take all of it, I don’t care! As long as… As long as you come back.”
Arms came around me from behind, strong, shaking, familiar. Lionel pulled me back against his chest, his voice cracking near my ear.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered. “I’ve got you, Ethalyn. I-I’m here, let me anchor you.”
I didn’t fight him. Couldn’t. The fire inside me sputtered out, leaving only the hollow ache where Malakai had once been.
“He was biting you. He was taking all of your magic… How?” Ashley murmured confused behind us. “How did you survive, how did he…”
“I didn’t ask him to,” I choked, my words dissolving into sobs. “I didn’t want this—”
Lionel’s grip tightened, and I felt his tears on my neck, as Ashley started to sniffle. “I know… I know he saved all of us… But I kind of miss his half-demon arrogance right now,” Ashley sobbed.
Around us, the ruins hissed in the wind, the last embers of battle fading to nothing.
I took Malakai’s hand in mine, lifeless, no resistance, no warmth as I whispered into the silence. “You weren’t supposed to keep that promise.”
No answer.
No miracle.
Only the steady, relentless beat in my chest, the one that should have been his.
Thud. Thud.
“You were supposed to stay at my side… Why… why are you leaving me? Don’t leave me behind… Please.” I sobbed, my whole body trembling.
“Ethalyn,” I heard Lionel’s voice as his arms tightened around me. “Ethalyn, I’m so… I’m so sorry.”
“Please,” I pleaded once more. “Don’t leave me.”
“We… We have to go,” Lionel said, his voice broken too.
“We can’t just leave him here—” Ashley interrupted, her voice cracking through her pain.
I stroked Malakai’s white-silvery hair that was filled with ash, tracing down to his cheek. “Malakai, please… Take it back.”
Nate walked up to us. Without so much as a word, he took one of Malakai’s arms and put it around himself, then heaved him up with a pained grunt.
“You’re injured; you shouldn’t—” Ashley began but was cut off.
“He carried me,” Nate shot back firmly, eyes glaring furiously. “I’m returning the favor.”
Jaden swooped up on his other side, trying to help him.
I wrapped my arms around myself, body breaking, I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. “Please.” My eyes followed him, his arm hanging loose in the air, lifeless.
Lionel shifted his arms around me, before he lifted me off the ground and carried me in his arms. “Don’t worry, we’re not leaving him behind.”
“Shit,” Eve breathed out on my other side, as she placed one of her hands on my shoulder. “I’m sorry Ethalyn… Really.”
“He’s just resting,” I whispered to myself, desperately trying to still my nerves, my eyes locked on them carrying him.
“Come this way, we can follow the edge to get down without climbing.” Jaden pointed and they kept going.
“He’s just resting, right?” I murmured.
Lionel and Eve glanced at each other, but neither of them dared utter another word.
“Malakai,” I whispered again, tears slipping down my cheek as my heart painfully kept beating.